Things to Consider Before Starting a Blog

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What You Need to Know Before Starting Your Blog

Since I’ve been on my new blogging routine, I am fielding DM’s daily for how to start a blog, or how to stay motivated and disciplined when it comes to blogging. First off it is no easy task, I work pretty much every waking hour. What you put into it really determines what you get out of it, especially if you are running your blog as a business (or planning to)!

You Must Know Your Niche

What kind of content are you going to want to create daily for the foreseeable future? Do you already have content ideas for this topic? Will you be able to easily come up with more? It is so important to hone in on a niche that you can really be happy with and create content confidently that you are proud to share with your audience.

You’ll Have to Stick to a Posting Schedule

Pick a goal and stick with it! I’ve challenged myself to post 3 times a week on my blog and at least once a day on Instagram for a whole year. The Instagram part is easy as long as I am creating for my blog, I have an abundance of photos to share on social media. Consistency is key and success doesn’t come overnight. It takes hard work and long hours before you’ll see big results but the work will pay off if you stick with it!

You Are Your Own Boss

When you are your own boss, holding yourself accountable for efficiently getting things done is a huge reality. As a blogger you are your own boss and it is up to you how you spend your time! I have taught myself to really maximize the free time that I have to get as much done as possible in order to set myself up for success. You also have to be comfortable working alone. Blogging tends to be a one man show much of the time. I put in hard hours on my laptop every single day working on content, contracts, emails, etc. Be prepared for lots of solo work time!

You’ll Work for no Pay (At first)

Ok so I am still kind of in this category. I’ve recently been taking on more paid contracts and work but up until now (for a few years) I have worked for free. I don’t mean work for brands for free (value your time and energy), but put in the hours creating original content on the subject you are passionate about and eventually you will get rewarded for your effort. There is no magic button for getting rich from blogging, it may take a very long time to get your first sponsored post or make an affiliate check. I don’t take my time for granted since I am fortunate enough to not have to work a second full time job to make ends meet (thanks hubby) but it is not uncommon for most bloggers to work in conjunction with blogging full time before they’re able enough money to quit their job and pursue the blog full time! You really have to be passionate about blogging as a hobby before it will become your full time job.

You Have to be Obsessed With Blogging

Are you excited at the thought of researching SEO, social media and creating contracts? Having the energy for blogging where you are still excited to pull out your laptop after a full day’s work at your 9-5 and bust out another 5 hours researching and creating content is a must! My pasGoogle was (and still is) my best friend whenever I have a questions I can’t seem to solve from the standard trial and error. Staying hungry throughout the process will really help propel you into the success you seek! The energy and passion you start with is so important in creating success as a blogger but even more important as you become a more established blogger!

My passion for blogging really started when I began to research the unique career 5 years ago and my curiosity has only grown since then! People ask me all the time how to start a blog, it’s easy, just do it! Jump in head first! You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from trial and error, but ultimately you’ll become an expert because you’ve done it all from the ground up. I hope my tips help you in deciding if blogging is right for you and choosing the right time to jump into this exciting territory!

Thanks for reading!
xo

Easy Ways to Support Your Blogger Friend!

5 Ways To Support Your Blogger Friend

Blogging has become so mainstream these days, chances are you have a friend or two who has a blog. It can be so easy to overlook their career as it usually looks fun and effortless from the outside, but there is SO much going on behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly.

I’ve realized after having my blog for almost four years, that I have some pretty awesome friends who know how to help me succeed and love to throw me a like or a share every once and a while. I’ve also realized that so many people don’t know how to support me and my business and that’s why I thought to make this post! There are many quick and easy ways you can support your friend who blogs (or even just your favorite bloggers you follow).

Keep reading for ways you can support your favorite blogger!

Read Their Blog

This small action makes a huge impact as blog traffic plays a major factor in earning brand collaborations as well as insight into what posts are most popular amongst readers. Leave comments on your friend’s blog posts and share them on social media! Hours and hours of hard work go into each blog post, the 2 seconds it takes for you to share a blog post on Facebook or Pinterest will not go unnoticed! While you’re checking out your friend’s blog, make sure to click around and spend some time on the different pages. This kind of traffic tells Google that their website is important and has relevant and interesting information, which in turn will help your friend’s site rank higher and lead to more organic discovery and traffic via search engine!

Use Their Links to Shop

The great thing about monetizing a blog with affiliate links is that there is no cost to the reader when they shop via these links! In fact, the only difference it makes is that the company you are shopping from gives a very small commission to the blogger as a reward for sharing the item. Why wouldn’t you want to kick a few cents to your friend for items you’d already be shopping for? This goes for anything too, a blogger gets commission from a reader using their affiliate links even if they aren’t buying the item being reviewed.

Blogging is so expensive, I put every cent I make from my blog back into paying to host my site, camera equipment, clothing, photographers, travel expenses, and all kinds of other expenses. Although I only earn a few cents when I sell something, those cents add up over time and help me continue to do what I love and share it with you all!

Subscribe to Their Newsletter

A bloggers email list is their pride and joy and also the key to much of their initial blog traffic following a new post! Subscribing to their newsletter not only shows that you care, but also allows you to keep up on recent posts and often times get additional information or freebies that your friend may not share anywhere else.

Be Supportive of their Spontaneous Photoshoots

Blogging is a 24/7 non-stop job for those of us who have decided to make it a career. This means you may have experienced your blogger friends pull out their camera to capture their outfit, or pop open Instagram stories to share parts of their day. This can be annoying or awkward in public but remember, your friend is “on the clock” 24/7 which means they have to share to keep their audience engaged and continue to make a living. Try to be understanding of your friends who do this, and maybe even offer to snap a photo of their outfit if you feel comfortable!

Offer Suggestions for Posts

There are no shortage of topics for blog posts or photo ideas for Instagram posts, but often times it can be tough to come up with an idea that readers want to hear about. There’s only so many OOTD’s one can read about before getting bored or going crazy. When you have a topic you’d like to learn more about or a question for your blogger friend, let them know! Odds are there are at least a handful of their followers who have the same question, and it can be hard to continuously come up with fresh ideas to blog about, especially for those of us who blog full time.

In conclusion, it is so easy to help your blogger friends and there are many ways you can contribute to their success. If you are unsure of how you can help, it never hurts to ask! There is no better feeling than when your friends show that they care by asking what they can do to support your ventures.

How do you support the bloggers in your life?

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to subscribe below, and share with your friends.

xo

Habits of Highly Successful People

I’ve been taking notes in my phone for years. I have a note for advice from each mentor in my life, I have an on going note of inspirational quotes, I have one for books, music, movies, I have a note for EVERYTHING. Over the past year I’ve started a new, ongoing note of motivation and the tips that I try to live by to set myself up not only to achieve success and the goals I’ve set for myself, but to be the best possible version of myself that I can possibly be. I’ve gathered these notes from various books I’ve read, motivational talks, youtube videos, and just random chats with my husband (also an entrepreneur). All of the notes I’ve taken are things that I believe in and that have helped me to quickly accomplish some goals that I’ve previously thought to be impossible. As I’ve evaluated my life over the past year I’ve decided that I ultimately hope for my family to have financial freedom, to not have to answer to anyone (such as employer), and to be in charge of my own time. Everything that I have written in this post has helped to propel down the path to achieve these things.

I have hesitated to hit the post button on this one because a lot of my tips may be slightly controversial or “extreme” to some people, but I wanted to share for the percentage of people who may need a push in the right direction to propel themselves toward their best life.

Outfit: Sweater // Top // Jeans // Belt // Shoes

TRIAL, Error and Succeed

This is one that I’ve heard from many successful entrepreneurs. You have to try and fail more than a handful of times. If you aren’t at least making an effort to start your business, or work on that idea you had, you’ll never know if you could have actually DONE it. Failing is also one of the best ways to learn. Not only are you learning what not to do, you area learning how to do it better the next time. If you try, fail and then give up you are accomplishing nothing. Try, fail, and then implement your new knowledge when you try again. Chances are you’ll learn something new. Odds are you’ll fail again, but how do you know if you don’t even try?

Example: scroll back to the beginning of my Instagram feed you’ll see my change my theme and style many times over the course of one year. I used trial and error to come up with what works best for me to grow quickly and efficiently on social media. I don’t stick with a theme for long if it is not proving results which is why every month or so you see a new theme on my feed!

Focus On One Task A Day

I always try my best to not fill my day with menial tasks. I prefer to give myself one, big, reachable goal each day whether it’s edit all of my photos from my photoshoot that day or create a blog post from start to finish. I try to prioritize my tasks from most important to least important. The dishes and laundry will be there tomorrow but if you put off that blog post one more day, you’ll put it off forever. I put my mind to one main task and GRIND. IT. OUT. Once it’s done I can focus on my smaller to-do’s. I’m always asking myself how each of my actions will bring me to my ultimate goal, (this is a method of reverse engineering your success) chase after those things with every ounce of your being.

Ignore Useless Information

When Dustin, Stella and I moved in November, we chose to get rid of our TV. We decided we didn’t want to be distracted in the evenings by mindlessly watching The Real Housewives of whatever, and wasting valuable time that we could be spending on our individual projects and working toward reaching our goals. TV is an example of “useless information.” It is important to constantly be filling your mind with information that will help you perfect your craft. There are nights where I take breaks here and there but I still try to read books or listen to podcasts during my down-time that are feeding me important information.

Don’t Re-invent The Wheel

I’ve learned to mimic my mentors and other people who have achieved successes that are similar to my goals. You don’t need to re-create the wheel to achieve success. Teaching yourself all of the minutiae from the ground up takes so much time. Learn from other’s failures and achievements and propel yourself to the top faster using that information.

Mental and Personal Health Is Key

I am constantly working on my personal health and mental state. School pushes you to go to college and get that Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 job but when you switch your mindset to think differently you can LIVE your goals. Don’t give in to the standard, constantly pursue what you want and fight for it. Follow your own path, constantly nourish your mind and throw yourself into your goals. This goes hand in hand with living a healthy lifestyle. I’ve found that when I work out daily, eat healthy meals at home, and am super conscious about what I am putting into my body, that my mind is so much more clear, I am efficient and can work much harder. I am still working on perfecting my routine and I sure love a frozen Twix bar every once and a while, I am by no means perfect, but working toward being more aware of these little things has helped me be much healthier in the long-run.

Don’t Waste Time

One piece of knowledge that I gained from one of my most important mentors is that there is never a “good time” for anything. Successful people waste no time in getting started, there is no such think as the right time and there are no good excuses. Timing will never be perfect and you will end up waiting forever and never get anything done! Start now, and don’t look back. You won’t regret it!

Do Not Associate With People You Don’t Emulate

Only surround yourself with people you strive to be like. Make it your goal to gather friends and mentors who are better than you, achieving higher goals and can teach you something new. A lot of my goals may seem crazy or unattainable to most people. Constantly think about your goals, live your goals, surround yourself with people who embrace your goals and support you achieving them.

If you have a tip to share that has worked for you, I want to hear about it! Leave me a comment below. Ultimately what I’ve decided is that if I can’t believe in myself I will never achieve anything. I have learned that I must believe I can achieve my goal, no matter how huge or outlandish… if I don’t I will wholeheartedly fail, and I have many times in my past! Once I changed my mindset and started to live by these tips, I have been creating success for myself that I never thought possible! I still constantly reference the note in my phone with all of these tidbits to keep myself on track. It is absolutely not an easy process, but it is necessary to stay on the path to achieve what I want in life.

xo

Curating Confidence + my Favorite Denim!

It can be a challenge to feel good about yourself when you work in a field that heavily utilizes social media for marketing. Scrolling through an endless feed of other people’s perfectly curated images is a recipe made for confidence disaster.

I’m speaking from personal experience of feeling like I’m never “doing it right” when it comes to blogging. I (used to) spend all day wishing I could make my life as beautiful as the bloggers whom I looked up to as creative mentor’s “highlight reels” on Instagram. I wasted so much time feeling bad about my content and trying so hard to create a similar look or feel to my Instagram that I was spinning in circles, wasting a ton of valuable time, and not growing or learning anything of importance. It took me months of feeling this way before I realized what was happening. If I wanted to have any success with my blog and my business I needed to change my mindset ASAP, and re-organize my priorities in a big way.

I’m sitting on my couch as I type this up eating some left over Teddy Grahams from my toddlers’ afternoon snack, and reminiscing of a time where I felt like an impostor in the blogging world. At that particular time in my life I really felt like I was not supposed to be blogging, everything felt wrong and weird. It was confusing because I had one time loved blogging and creating, and now I hated feeling like it was a job. The best part of blogging full time is that it is already one of my favorite things to do, why was I feeling like I didn’t want to do it anymore?! The answer is because I was doing it all WRONG.

Let’s go back to the beginning, I know I talk about this a lot but it was only 2 short years ago that I started my blog as a creative hobby to give myself something to do outside of my life-consuming work as a manager at Nordstrom. When my blog and Instagram started to grow, I started to get offers and make money from my efforts which is such an amazing feeling! I didn’t even know this could be a job at the time, so it felt so wonderful that I was being rewarded for my creative efforts and hobby! As I started to do more research and dig deeper into this industry I started to make friends with other bloggers, gain inspiration from amazing creatives who have huge followings and beautiful Instagram feeds and seem to do it all so effortlessly. I didn’t see myself slowly declining into a hole of self-doubt and comparison.

This year has been an interesting time of self-discovery. I was forging a new path of my life as a mom, I had quit my long time career to stay at home with my new baby, and I had decided to take on blogging full time. I did a lot of thinking, meditation of sorts. I wanted to spend time with myself since I now was giving a lot of my physical body, brain power, and mental state, not to mention every waking hour (and much of the sleeping hours) to this new baby. I reflected on many parts of my life but I really wanted to re-focus my blog, take it back to basics and amp up the content and photography I was creating so I could not only feel proud of my work, but also really provide valuable information for others, or even just a place to stop and casually hang out for a bit. I also wanted to be sure I was fulfilled by the creative efforts I was putting out. This is something that I lost when I got off track temporarily. I began creating posts that were superficial, un-informative, un-important and I was never super proud to share them with people because I wasn’t impressed with my own work. I was trying too hard and it was having a negative effect all around. It’s weird to look back on that time because I truly feel like I’m in such a great space now. My mindset is positive, growth has been steady, and I am feeling great about the content I’ve been putting out!

I really didn’t intend for this post to get so in depth, but it feels great to get this all out, so thank you to you lovelies who have stuck around to read the whole thing!

To sum it all up, I’ve created some new goals for my blog which you can read about in this post HERE , and I have changed my mindset to focus more on my own content and care less about what other people’s content looks like. I don’t like to whole “un-follow people who make you feel bad” thing because I still love to support people’s beautiful content. I think it is more important to understand where your feelings are coming from and teaching yourself to re-direct the energy for a positive outcome that will benefit YOU. If you’ve never meditated about your life before, take some time in the morning and just lay in bed, or sit outside with a cup of coffee, no phone, no music, nothing but your mind, and think about your life! Think about the things you want to change, and the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. If you do this every day for a few minutes, I promise you will feel so much better about yourself and you will also have a better understanding of what you need to do to get to where you want to be.

Now I want to share the most confidence inducing jeans I’ve ever worn! If you love premium denim but don’t love dropping $200+ on a pair of jeans, Madewell is where it’s at for a quality pair of denim that looks and feels premium but without the insane price tag! These ones are super high waisted but they have so many types for all different shapes and sizes!

Cardigan // Jeans // Shoes // Shoes (similar, better quality) // Necklace

Thank you to those of you that have supported me on this journey, through my trials and tribulations I see you and hear you and appreciate you SO much! I hope you all are loving this new leaf as much as I am, thank you for sticking it through with me.

xo

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5 Investments to Make for a Successful Blog

There is a lot of information about “how to start a blog” online. It is daunting to sift through pages of information as you search for the answers to your blogging questions. I’m speaking with complete transparency and from raw experience as I have put in the hours to teach myself everything that I know about blogging. I will admit I have learned a lot by trial and error, what works vs what is a waste of time and money. I decided to put this list together of the investments I’ve tried that have worked, for those of you that may be skeptical about what to invest your money into as you transition your blog into a business. Each one of these tips has made a difference in the successes I’ve had as a full time blogger and I hope that you are able to take at least one small nugget of information to apply to your own business to prove results!

5 Investments You Must Make for a Successful Blog

1. Self Hosting

Self hosting means paying a web host such as Squarespace or Wordpress to host your blog. When I first created my blog it was as a personal portfolio and I used a free website (blogspot) to host my blog. I didn’t intend for anyone to read it except me and a few friends and I didn’t understand why it was important to spend any money to host my blog at the time. For me, it wasn’t! For my original blogging intentions it was just fine to use a free hosting platform and have a website name with an unprofessional looking “.blogspot.com” at the end, with a messy and poorly laid out template that I chose from their free options on the site. Until I decided it was something I wanted to take on and to make money from, I realized that just like any other business venture, there are important things to invest in when blogging that will help to take your blog to the next level and are essentials in my eyes. Not all of these are monetary investments. I am frugal and don’t make a ton of money, but the small amount I do make right now, 100% goes back into my business and these are the top 5 investments that I make with that money in order to support my blog!

When you pay to self host, you fully own your blog and are able to make customizations to your website that you otherwise would not be able to do. Running your blog on a free platform is the same as having an Instagram blog, ultimately you don’t own your website or content and you have much less flexibility with the layout and look of your website.

Self hosting is the only way to monetize your blog, you are in control of what ads are placed on your blog, you can remove or add them at will. Free platforms, from my experience, are unprofessional looking and companies will not pay you to create content for them on a free blogging platform. If your goal is to make money from your blog these types of sites will ultimately damage your earning potential. Self hosting is one of the bigger investments I make each year, but I chose to use Squarespace to automatically renew my domain and hosting every year, so it’s really easy and I don’t even have to think about it!

Three years ago as a fresh new blogger who knew nothing about owning a website, I have to say Squarespace is one of the easiest and most user friendly hosting sites to invest in. It is very quick to sign up, create a domain and pay for everything in package form. They have beautifully designed templates that you can use and customize to create the exact look you want for your website. There is also an extremely useful “help” section that has answered any and every question I’ve ever had whenever I get stuck on anything Squarespace related. Click here to get started with Squarespace!

2. Website Design

Website design is one of the most important investments you will make with your website. Ultimately, you NEED to catch the attention of your reader within the first few seconds of them landing on your site. Besides content, the look and feel of your website will determine how long people stay on your website, click through articles, use your affiliate links, and increase your ad revenue (if you use them). This can be an investment that you pay for in terms of an actual web designer who you contract to create a beautiful website for you. Or this can be in terms of investing your own time and energy into designing your own beautiful site. Also it is so important that your website functions correctly, images load quickly, buttons route to the correct pages, links aren’t broken, ads aren’t overwhelming your readers, and the colors are cohesive and your site it overall a beautiful and easy page to function. Make sure your page is also mobile responsive for your readers who like to check your blog from their iPhone!

3. Photography

Whatever subject you choose to blog about, the quality of your images that you upload to your social media pages as well as your blog is paramount! Images need to be clear, composed and eye catching. Invest in your photography make sure you’re either using the correct equipment including camera, tripod, lighting, backdrops, or even a professional photographer if you can’t take your own photos. Investing in high quality stock photos is important if you don’t need to include personal photos on your blog. Your photos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are what will entice your target market to click through to your physical blog. First impressions are everything!

4. Tailwind for Pinterest

I am a new believer in the power of Pinterest! I plan to create an entire post on my Pinterest growth and go into detail on how it has changed the game for my blog, but for now I want to touch on the importance of consistent pinning.

Pinterest is your new best friend. Utilize Pinterest by creating a business account so you can view you analytics, apply for rich pins, claim your blog and social accounts to increase your legitimacy, create some beautiful pins with Canva, and start pinning! Most people say to pin only 20% your own content and 80% other pins, but I do the opposite. I want to increase my blog views so I pin every single image from my website and Instagram and then continue to re-pin the images that get the most saves and clicks.

Tailwind is an amazing tool that automates your pinning, and it’s only $10 a month! Take my word for it, coming from the girl who thought Pinterest was a gimmick only 3 short months ago. INVEST. IN. TAILWIND. This tool allows you to batch pin and schedule out your pins so you can sit back and watch your page views grow with minimal work. Time is money, you’ve heard me say it before! Invest your time wisely, what is your time worth?

5. TIME

Blogging as a hobby is great because if it is something you genuinely enjoy you’ll find time to create and it’s so much fun! As you grow and learn more about the industry you’ll quickly see that creating a successful business from your blog takes a ton of time and energy. Maximizing your time will become a priority and learning to be efficient is a non-negotiable. I still feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get things done and I think I’m pretty good at managing my time as a full time mom and work from home blogger.

Not only does the actual creating take up a ton of time between emailing with brands and PR companies, planning shoots, shopping for items, pulling outfits/looks, and editing photos, you will also spend a huge chunk of your time researching SEO, and trend reports, customizing your blog and subscription list, replying to emails and comments and engaging with your followers, the list goes on forever! Most days I feel like I’m working from the moment I wake up until the time I go to bed. It’s currently 11pm as I finish this post and I’m not going to bed until it’s completed and scheduled. Time is a huge commitment and hands down the biggest investment you will make in your blog if you want it to be successful.